Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-04-14

n
part OF those grand organizations, the
armies Of the Potomac Tennessee, Cum
berland, ETC. = those mighty engines of
destruction that in the last years of the
war moved to their deadly work with al
most machine ke.precision-this erstwhile
citizen was model soldier and uncom-
plalnlngly endured untold hardship brave
~ faced danger in thousand forms and
heroieally met death upon thousand
battle-felds.
we laud, revere, nay, almost idolize, the
successful leaders in the late war, but it
does seem as though the full measure of
justice and honor had not been bestowed
upon the private soldier.
How did he view the causes and opening
of the war? Let us see. OF his number
large class were of different political
party from that which came in power
March 4, 1861.
The party creed Of this large class caused
them-nay, the whole drift of their politi-
cal teachings, the whole force of their
political instincts had long caused them
to think, feel and voice a current express
sion of that time: "This whole trouble
has been brought on by the politicians
especially by the Abolitionists of Massa-
chusetts and the pro-slavery hot-heads of
South Carolina"
But Notwithstanding the views of this
class as to the causes of the war, from the
time the old flag was fired upon at Fort
Sumter till the end, four years later,
thousands, aye, tens and hundreds of
thousands of these men few to arms, and
were as brave as the bravest, true as the
truest, and in untold numbers sealed their
devotion to has and country with their
life's blood
But of the private soldier in general,
whether Democrat or Republican: Not only
did he surrender agreeable occupation and
leave plcw, bench, counter or school; not
only did he leave the place of his birth and
tear himself frem the loved scenes and as
sociations of childhood; not only did he bid
farewell to home and kindred, may be for
ever; not only did he encounter disease
and death in myriad forms; not only did
he go into battle bravely; but all this in
the first years of the war he often did in
the face of encouragement, defeat and
| disaster.
This was notably true with the Army of
the Potomac, and nothing in the whole his
tory of the war is finer, nobler, grander,
than the long, patient persistence and
brave, logged determination of that Won
derful organization under four years strain
OF the most trying circumstances.
| At Bull Run in July, 1861, this army
4 when only partly organized and but half
/ disciplined, met disaster and disgrace. But
| this reverse served only to rouse its ener-
/ gies, and it at once set about thorough re-
\ organization under that skilled organizer
! Mcclellan, and after nine months of tedi-
/ Gus drill and preparation, entered upon the
! Peninsular campaign and worked its la
/ borious way from Fort Monroe to the
| Chickahominy. But instead of ente ring
/ Richmond from here as had been the hope,
the issue OF seven bloody days of battle,
ending with Malvern Hill, July /, 1862,
I found the army at Harrison's Landing on
4 the James, crippled, bleeding, exhausted,
( but not crushed-the victin of digided coaa-
els But not long was the army allowed
rest, for soon in large detachment it was
+ ordered to join Pope in Northern Virginia;
+ where for a short time it became identified
With the newly organized but short-lived
army OF Virginia, and met misfortune in
+ several engagements late in August, 1862,
and on the Goth of that month at Groveton
i the second Bull Run-encountered seri-
GUS defeat.
Beaten, but net overwhelmed, the army
sullenly fell back upon Washington, again
the victim of divided councils.
The enemy, emboldened by success, now
sought to invade the North, but the Army
of the Potomac, again under the loved but
not faultless Mcclellan, interposed and at